ROXBURY
AND MOUNT ARLINGTON – July 16, 2014 – The State Local Finance
Board gave its unanimous approval this morning of an application calling for
the creation of a municipal consolidation commission for Roxbury and Mount
Arlington.

Representatives
of both communities will be appointed to serve on the commission, which will
undertake a comprehensive study into the pros and cons of consolidation.

Chris Rogers, a Roxbury
resident who is among the petitioners, was among a group of residents from both
towns who attended the Local Finance Board meeting today to show support..

“We are thrilled that
our application has been approved,” Rogers said. “Now the hard work begins. We
are eager to form the consolation commission and move to the next step in the
state-mandated process.”

Citizens representing
Roxbury and Mount Arlington submitted nearly 400 signed petitions last year to
clerks in both municipalities calling for the municipal consolidation study
commission. It would comprise five residents of each town.

The process, which
follows the Local Option Municipal Consolidation
Law, is similar to what is now taking place in Scotch Plains and
Fanwood, which formed their consolidation commission in early 2013 in
partnership with local elected officials.

The effort to gather
petition signatures began October 2012, with residents from both towns meeting
to discuss the petition process.

Roxbury and Mount
Arlington are not the first to pursue this initiative. Princeton Borough and
Princeton Township conducted the study in 2011, and consolidated on January 1,
2013. The merged town has more than $3 million in tax savings and has received
positive feedback from residents.

The petitioners
received voluntary support from Courage to Connect New Jersey, a non-profit,
non-partisan organization that helps citizens and government leaders through
the state-mandated consolidation process.

Gina Genovese,
executive director of the organization, said the petitioners in Roxbury and
Mount Arlington have worked diligently over two years to push the process
forward. “This is an extremely knowledgeable group of petitioners who have
carefully deliberated if they should pursue a consolidation commission,”
Genovese said. “Today is a historic moment, as Roxbury and Mount Arlington now
formerly explore if they are better as one municipality.”